1. Welcome W 8.1 Introduction to Engineering Design II (IE 202)
Chapter 5: Generating Design Alternatives 1 1

2. Today’s Learning Outcomes
By the completion of today's meeting, students should be able to:
Describe and create Morph charts.
Decompose design spaces.
Limit the design space to a useful size. 2 2

3. 2nd Task in the Design Process
Where are we? 3 3

4. Morphological Charts
Organizing Functions and Means to generate designs that work
An important & creative tool develop Alternative designs
Functions or Key Features are listed in the first column.
Alternate Means of achieving each function are given in that function’s row. 4 4

5. The Selection Process
Selection of the preferred design is obtained by drawing a line connecting the most suitable mean in each row.
Engineering sense and scientific principles are employed in choosing the most appropriate combination of means.
Generating the Means for each function can be a highly creative process. Means do not have to be words, some designers use sketches to show some alternative means. 5 5

6. Can you think of other combinations?
An Example
Can you think of other combinations? 6 6

7. What does it offer?
The Morphological Chart can be used to generate complete alternatives, where
The leftmost column lists all functions,
Selecting a means from each row guarantees that the solution satisfies all required functionality.
However, this approach can result in a huge number of alternatives. 7 7

8. What doesn’t it offer? The Morphological Chart cannot guarantee that
Alternatives will work,
Or even be internally consistent (see Fig. 5.2b).
Therefore, judgement is still required by the designer. 8 8

9. Another example Consider the beverage container.
What are the elements on the left column (the functions)?
Contains beverage
Choice of the container material
Provides access to the juice
Displays product information
Shows the sequence of manufacturing the juice. 9 9

10. What is next? Add means for each function.
Contains Beverage: Can, Bottle, Bag, Box
Container Material: Aluminum, Plastic, Glass, Waxed Cardboard, Lined Cardboard, Mylar Films
Access to Juice: Pull-Tab, Inserted Straw, Twist-Top, Tear Corner, Unfold Container, Zipper
Product Information Display: Shape of Container, Labels, Color of Material
Manufacturing Sequence: Concurrent , Serial 10 10

11. The Chart (in words) 11 11

12. The Chart (in figures) 12 12

13. Choosing a Design
One mean for each function is to be combined to form one alternative design. 13 13

14. Remark
Generating a morphological chart can be tedious and may result in a lot of solutions, which may not be relevant or practical. Attention should be paid to all aspects of the design mix, when selecting one of the alternative designs. 14 14

15. Is a complete alter. feasible?
An alternative design, though complete, may not be consistent or feasible. 15 15

16. Complex Design Spaces
Functional Decomposition is used to simplify the selection process of a complex design space by decomposing the system step by step, beginning with the main function of a system and continuing with the interim levels down to the level of elementary functions. On each level, abstractions are made from each corresponding lower level. 16 16

17. Building a Design Space
Available Technologies may affect design alternatives:
Materials (affects quality, appearance, manufacturing, price)
External Constraints may limit design alternatives:
Team’s area of expertise (may be expert in tricycle design)
Available Manufacturing Facilities (may dictate material or technological means) 17 17

18. Practical Considerations
Use Common Sense!
Invoke and apply constraints (similar to user needs, as above)
Limit the number of attributes being considered (avoid those unlikely to seriously affect design, e.g. color)
Impose some order on the list (which functions/features are most important)
Get Real! (watch out when silly/infeasible options are repeated too often) 18 18

19. How many alternatives can you get?
Team Practice
Suppose that the university decided to build a train system to transfer students from one place to another in the campus.
Can you design a Morph chart for this project?
What would be your preferred design alternative?
How many alternatives can you get? 19 19

20. In-Class # 4 This is an assignment to be solved individually.
The answer should be submitted electronically.
The file name for your work should be:
In-Class # 4 – your ID #
e.g. In-Class # 20 20